Gomez voted Germany's footballer of the year

BERLIN, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Mario Gomez, who scored 14 goals to lead VfB Stuttgart to last season's Bundesliga title, was voted Germany's footballer of the year ahead of Werder Bremen playmaker Diego and Bernd Schneider of Bayer Leverkusen.

Stuttgart coach Armin Veh was overwhelmingly voted coach of
2006-07 in the annual poll by German sports writers announced on
Wednesday, picking up 449 votes to finish well in front of
Nuremberg's Hans Meyer with 228.

Gomez, 22, is the youngest player to win the award since it
was launched by Kicker magazine in 1960. He was also the first
VfB Stuttgart player to win the award in 19 years - since
Juergen Klinsmann took the honour.

Gomez, a German international who also has Spanish
citizenship, got 196 votes, Diego 175, and Schneider had 156.

Klinsmann finished 11th in the voting for coach of the year
even though he stepped down just before the season began after
leading Germany to third place at the World Cup.